Chapter 43: The Lament of the Gods

Between heaven and earth, a flash of golden light suddenly cut through the air, enveloping them entirely.

As if transporting a precious artifact, it gently carried them back to where they originally stood.

Chi Shaomu's "Observer" state was forcibly interrupted once again.

Feeling the familiar presence, he let out a long breath for the first time in an age, relaxing completely.

"Apologies, ladies and gentlemen, am I late?"

The familiar, irritating voice rang out, sounding to Lu Xuening and the others like celestial music.

"It seems... not too late?"

Li Ye jogged out from the red mist, his gaze sweeping over Lu Xuening and her group.

"Any later, and we'd have died a heroic death," Suo Hao collapsed onto the ground in a heap.

Whispers broke out among the Seventh Legion.

"Who is this guy? Kind of handsome, aren't they?"

"Stop daydreaming, we should be figuring out how to stay alive right now."

"Little Rat, who the hell is he?!"

Hearing the question, Suo Hao paused to think, then muttered somewhat dazedly:

"Leaf... Li Ye. Right, a few days ago, he defeated Yan Fenghua and the Legion Commander in three moves. Not sure if you guys heard old Yan mention it... Anyway, it's this bloke."

The Seventh Legion soldiers clustered around Suo Hao went quiet for a few seconds.

"Defeated the Legion Commander and Brother Yan in three moves?!"

"If that's true, then... we might actually stand a chance?"

Everyone's emotions shifted in an instant, their eyes all converging on that single man.

Only Lu Xuening and Aunt Lu looked at Li Ye with worry, admonishing him:

"That new type of aberrant was just batted away by this fallen god. You must be careful."

Li Ye's gaze paused. *A new aberrant?*

He immediately turned his head to look in the direction where the aberrant had been sent flying, as if sensing something.

A tyrannical roar rang out, cutting off Li Ye's brief confusion.

He had no choice but to turn and walk toward the nine-headed Xiangliu.

The fallen god's sensory capabilities were also terrifyingly acute.

Facing this diminutive human, it broke with convention and refrained from instantly crushing him.

All nine of its heads arched back, sizing Li Ye up with evident wariness.

The nine heads parted their jaws in unison, spitting out a bizarre, discordant syllable.

"......Zhu?"

Li Ye chuckled softly. Regardless of whether the fallen god Xiangliu could understand him or not, he shouted loudly across the battlefield:

"Leaving aside the fact that you're merely an attendant-grade fallen god, even if Gonggong himself were here today, he wouldn't be able to stop me!"

While hurling threats, Li Ye moved at lightning speed, stepping onto the small mountain of accumulated rubble.

His arms slightly curved into an embracing posture, and the light illuminating Xiangliu's massive body all materialized into physical form.

Crimson light rain fell upon the fallen god's head like a shower of miniature meteors.

One after another, it quickly grew as dense as a torrential downpour.

Whenever the impacts struck vulnerable spots on its body, they tore away massive chunks of flesh.

Xiangliu was thoroughly enraged, its gargantuan form writhing frantically.

The surrounding ground began to quake as if gripped by an earthquake.

A bizarre green light screen enveloped its body, and any subsequent light rain merely splashed ripples across the surface of the barrier.

He tried firing another pair of light arrows as a test, but they had no effect.

Li Ye's expression remained unchanged as he pondered for a moment.

With a flick of his wrist, a long sword materialized in his hand.

Unlike before, this time the golden sword appeared extraordinarily heavy.

Li Ye could only wield the sword with one hand, dragging it behind him across the ground.

After taking two steps, the golden radiance that had continuously blanketed the blade finally dissipated.

The true appearance of the sword had at last crossed from Li Ye's dream into the waking world.

At the hilt and blade, most of the material resembled 'gold'.

The blade itself was formed from three cylindrical cutting edges twisted together, lacking any traditional sharp edge.

Instead, it looked more like three massive cylindrical stone slabs.

Deflecting a lunging head with a light shield, Li Ye switched to a two-handed grip on the sword, his gaze solemn.

An aura of faint, creeping destruction emanated from the golden sword.

Xiangliu froze instantly, followed by a piercing, terrified screech.

Its serpentine body twisted frantically in a desperate attempt to flee the area.

Its instinctive perception of danger had not been slow; it was simply that this golden sword was charging up with terrifying speed.

In the span of a single breath, the mythical energy Li Ye had previously stored throughout the limbs and bones of his body vanished completely.

It poured in a mad rush into the golden sword he held.

Not only that, but the golden sword acted as if it hadn't eaten for millennia, continuing to frantically demand more from Li Ye.

It only ceased its absorption when Li Ye was nearly drained of the very strength required to hold it.

The three massive cylindrical edges on the sword began to spin crazily.

Tens of thousands of black-and-red blood-silk patterns manifested across the sky.

In a mere two heartbeats, all those threads converged back into the golden sword.

At that moment, downtown Jiangning plunged into absolute silence.

The forces of collapse condensed in an instant... and burst forth immediately!

Across the entire distance between Li Ye and Xiangliu, the very space seemed to tremble and warp.

A beam of black-and-red light instantly flooded the entire expanse.

It sounded like the roar of a mythical behemoth, and simultaneously like the agonizing tearing of the void itself.

Blood began to stream simultaneously from Li Ye's mouth, ears, eyes, and nose, prompting panicked cries of alarm from Lu Xuening and the others.

"Xiao Ye!"

Meanwhile, Chi Shaomu subconsciously slipped into the "Observer" state, attempting to parse that catastrophic power.

As he watched, two streams of bloody tears suddenly welled up and flowed from his eyes.

The energy contained within this single strike was beyond his comprehension!

It was something possessing an existence higher even than the "Observer" authority!

Gritting his teeth and struggling to steady the golden sword with both hands, Li Ye sensed something amiss and shifted his thoughts.

A plump, radiant fairy fruit flew out from the tattoo on his left arm.

In an instant, it transformed into pure life energy, replenishing Li Ye's depleted body.

Facing this single strike head-on, Xiangliu let out a mournful wail.

Its colossal body had nowhere to hide.

The dark green light screen dissolved the moment it touched the black-and-red beam.

Six of its nine heads instantly turned to ash under the beam, leaving not even flesh behind.

The remaining three heads collapsed onto the ground, emitting agonizing shrieks.

This was the death knell of a god!

At this moment, a convoy of hundreds led by Shen Zhihong, having driven their military jeeps into the downtown area, arrived on the scene.

Upon hearing those sounds, everyone wore expressions of utter astonishment and dread.

"What were those two sounds?"

"For the first time, I feel like the red mist's soundproofing is completely useless."

Standing in the vehicle wearing infrared night-vision goggles, Shen Zhihong caught sight of that massive pillar of laser-like light.

That was definitely not an attack from a fallen god!

It was someone else entirely!

Could it be that bastard Li Ye?

Shen Zhihong's heart pounded violently, and his hand instinctively tightened its grip on the railing.

"Chief of Staff! There are survivors ahead!"

"It's the Legion Commander! He's unconscious!"

...

The beam gradually faded. Li Ye dropped to one knee, panting heavily.

Xiao Qi stared in a daze; the terrifying destructive capability Li Ye had just displayed left him practically speechless.

As for the rest of the Seventh Legion members who weren't familiar with Li Ye, they were even more inclined to doubt whether Li Ye was human at all.

"That strike just now... is that something a human can unleash?"

"So he's really just a fallen god wearing human skin..."

"As expected of the man who defeated the Legion Commander in three moves. I acknowledge him," muttered one soldier while furiously swallowing saliva.

Lu Xuening gazed blankly at Li Ye's back, speaking softly to the others:

"Compared to a fallen god, don't you think he looks much more like a god belonging to humanity itself?"

"..."

The golden sword in his hand dissolved into specks of light, returning once more to the [God's Treasury].

The life energy of the fairy fruit had been completely depleted.

Even so, Li Ye's body appeared slightly shrunken and emaciated.

*Damn... I underestimated this sword...*

Li Ye reassessed the power of the golden sword inwardly, a lingering wave of fear flashing through his heart.

Then, looking toward Xiangliu's position, he struggled back to his feet.

Fallen gods weren't so easily slain—especially Xiangliu.

Its terrifying regenerative abilities placed it among the hardest entities to eradicate even within the A-grade sequence.

"Roar—"

The fallen god let out a long howl, and a strange aura emanated from its body.

The rubble-strewn ground suddenly shifted amid a harsh sizzling sound.

Pungent, fishy, dark green mucus seeped upward from the cracks in the earth, spreading continuously as if endowed with life.

In the blink of an eye, the solid ground began to soften and sink.

Xiangliu's movements grew fluid and agile once more, as if it had returned to water as a fish.

Within moments, the entire terrain had devolved into a bottomless quagmire.

Bubbles occasionally burst, splashing mud onto the surrounding buildings, instantly corroding deep pits wherever the droplets landed.

Li Ye frowned, murmuring to himself: "It already possesses the ability to form the embryonic stage of a forbidden zone..."